IC-NRLF 


HOW 
PRINTS  ARE  MADE 


ATHERTON  CURTIS 


MOUNT  KISCO,  NEW  YORK 

1902 


HOW 
PRINTS  ARE  MADE 


ATHEETON  CURTIS 


MOUNT  KISCO,  NEW  YORK 
1902 


o 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 5 

i.    BURIN  ENGRAVIN^ 7 

ii.    ETCHING      . 7 

in.    AQUATINT 8 

iv.     SOFT-GROUND  ETCHING 9 

v.    DRY-POINT 9 

vi.    MEZZOTINT 10 

vn.    PRINTING  FROM  COPPERPLATES 10 

vin.    WOOD-ENGRAVING       11 

ix.    LITHOGRAPHY 12 

x.    GENERAL  EEMARKS  ON  PRINTING 13 

XL    COLOUR-PRINTING       13 

xn.  ORIGINAL  AND  INTERPRETATIVE  PRINTS     ....  14 

xin.    TECHNICAL  TERMS 18 

xrv.    EEMARQUE  AND  SIGNED  PROOFS 20 


236768 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

THE  descriptions  of  the  various  processes  which  follow 
are  not  intended  for  technical  treatises.  They  give  the 
most  important  facts  for  those  who  know  little  of  how 
prints  are  made,  but  they  do  not  enter  sufficiently  into 
details  to  be  of  use  to  the  professional  worker. 


HOW  FEINTS  ARE  MADE 


BURIN  ENGRAVING 

ENGRAVING  is  done  generally  upon  a  thin,  flat  copperplate. 
The  instrument  used  is  a  small,  pointed  chisel,  which 
gives  a  V-shaped  cut.  It  is  known  as  a  burin  or  a  graver. 
The  strength  of  the  line  is  varied  by  the  size  of  the  burin, 
and  by  the  depth  of  the  cut.  The  engraver  works  by  push- 
ing the  burin  from  him,  holding  it  almost  flat  against  the 
plate. 

This  is  the  process  employed  by  Diirer  and  the  early 
masters.  It  is  often  known  as  line  engraving,  but  this 
term  is  not  strictly  correct,  since  any  engraving  process 
that  works  in  line  has  as  good  a  right  to  the  title.  It  is 
also  known  simply  as  engraving,  in  distinction  to  etching, 
and  is  popularly  called  steel-engraving,  though  steel 
plates  are  rarely  used,  except  in  commercial  work,  copper- 
plates having  always  been  the  medium  for  artistic  en- 
graving. 


ETCHING 

A  COPPERPLATE  is  generally  used,  though  etching  may  be 
done  on  zinc,  iron,  and  other  materials. 

The  plate  is  heated,  and  a  ball  of  etching-ground,  com- 
posed chiefly  of  wax,  is  melted  upon  it.  This  is  made 
smooth  by  means  of  a  silk  pad,  known  as  a  dabber  because 
it  is  dabbed  gently  upon  the  plate.  When  the  etching- 
ground  becomes  cold  it  forms  an  extremely  thin  varnish 

7 


upon  the  surface  of  the  plate.  The  varnish  is  then 
smoked  by  holding  the  plate  over  a  candle.  This  process 
blackens  it  for  the  purpose  of  permitting  the  etcher  to 
see  his  lines.  The  etcher  draws  upon  the  plate  with  a 
pointed  instrument  called  an  etching-needle,  which  is  held 
in  the  hand  in  the  same  way  as  an  ordinary  pencil.  The 
needle  cuts  through  the  etching-ground  and  exposes  the 
copperplate  below,  leaving  a  shining  copper  line  against 
the  black,  smoked  surface.  When  the  drawing  is  finished 
the  plate  is  put  into  a  tray  containing  an  acid.  The  etch- 
ing-ground is  impervious  to  the  acid,  but  the  copper  is 
not.  Hence,  the  acid  eats  into  the  plate  wherever  the 
copper  has  been  laid  bare  by  the  needle.  The  action  of 
the  acid  forms  a  line  cut  in  below  the  surface  of  the  plate, 
and  the  deeper  and  wider  this  line,  the  heavier  and  blacker 
it  will  print.  This  operation  with  the  acid  is  known  tech- 
nically as  biting  the  plate.  If  the  artist  wishes  to  bite 
some  lines  deeper  than  others,  he  takes  the  plate  from  the 
acid  and  covers  the  lines  that  have  been  bitten  deeply 
enough  with  a  liquid  varnish  known  as  stopping-out  var- 
nish. This  is  applied  with  a  brush.  When  the  lines  are 
thus  stopped  out,  the  plate  is  replaced  in  the  acid  and  the 
biting  continues  in  the  unstopped  lines.  When  all  the 
lines  have  been  bitten  to  the  required  depth,  the  plate  is 
taken  from  the  acid,  the  etching-ground  is  removed,  and 
the  plate  is  ready  for  the  printing. 

m 
AQUATINT 

THIS  is  practically  etching.  The  ground  is  of  a  sandy 
nature,  which  leaves  minute  interstices  through  which  the 
acid  may  penetrate.  The  acid  is  laid  on  with  a  brush,  as 
if  the  artist  were  making  a  wash-drawing.  When  the 
ground  is  removed  and  the  plate  printed  from,  the  result 
is  a  print  which  gives  the  appearance  of  a  drawing  made 
upon  the  paper  with  a  brush  and  ink. 

8 


IV 

SOFT-GROUND  ETCHING 

As  the  name  implies,  this  is  done  with  a  soft  ground  in- 
stead of  the  usual  hard  etching-ground.  A  sheet  of  paper 
is  placed  upon  the  soft  ground  and  a  drawing  is  then 
made  upon  the  paper  with  a  pencil.  When  the  paper  is 
removed  it  takes  the  ground  away  with  it  wherever  the 
pressure  of  the  pencil  has  been  applied.  This  leaves  the 
copper  exposed,  and  the  biting  is  then  done  as  in  ordinary 
etching. 


DRY-POINT 

THIS  is  done  with  a  sharp-pointed  instrument,  known  as  a 
dry-point  because  it  digs  directly  into  the  bare  copper- 
plate without  the  use  of  an  acid.  The  dry-point  is  held 
in  the  hand  like  the  etching-needle.  The  artist  draws 
by  digging  into  the  surface  of  the  plate.  The  action  of 
the  instrument  throws  up  the  copper  on  the  sides  of  the 
lines  exactly  like  a  plough  in  the  earth.  The  copper  thus 
thrown  up  is  known  as  burr.  If  left  upon  the  plate  it 
holds  ink  in  the  printing  and  gives  the  printed  line  a  soft, 
blurred  appearance.  If  the  burr  is  removed  with  a 
scraper,  the  line  that  remains  differs  little  from  an  etched 
line.  Dry-point  work  is  often  used  in  conjunction  with 
etching  to  give  finishing  touches.  It  also  gives  beautiful 
results  when  used  by  itself. 

The  dry-point  and  the  etching-needle  are  as  a  matter 
of  fact  essentially  the  same  instrument.  When  an  etch- 
ing-ground and  acid  are  used  the  instrument  is  an  etch- 
ing-needle, but  when  the  bare  plate  is  dug  into  by  the 
instrument,  it  becomes  a  dry-point.  But  needles  may  be 
used  in  etching  so  fine  as  to  be  useless  in  dry-point,  because 
of  their  not  having  strength  to  dig  into  the  copper. 

9 


VI 

MEZZOTINT 

THIS  also  is  done  upon  a  copperplate,  but  it  differs  greatly 
from  the  previous  processes.  The  plate  is  first  prepared 
with  an  instrument  known  as  a  mezzotint  rocker.  The 
rocker  has  a  curved  edge  with  fine  teeth.  It  is  rocked  back 
and  forth  upon  the  plate  in  every  direction,  until  the  sur- 
face of  the  plate  is  a  mass  of  little  dots,  each  of  which 
has  a  burr  raised  by  the  teeth  of  the  rocker.  If  the  plate 
were  printed  from  in  this  condition,  it  would  give  a  uni- 
form black  surface  on  the  paper.  The  artist  now  takes 
a  scraper  and  works  upon  the  plate  by  scraping  away 
the  mezzotint  ground.  Wherever  he  scrapes,  part  of  the 
work  of  the  rocker  is  removed,  and  this  portion  of  the 
plate  will  print  lighter.  By  more  or  less  scraping  he 
may  get  any  tone  he  wishes,  from  the  blackest  printers' 
ink  to  white  paper.  Thus  he  works  from  black  to  white 
instead  of  from  white  to  black,  as  in  the  previous  pro- 
cesses. 

vn 
PRINTING  FROM  COPPERPLATES 

IN  burin-engraving,  etching,  aquatint,  dry-point,  and  mez- 
zotint, the  method  of  printing  is  the  same.  The  work  on 
the  plate  is  not  raised  above,  but  is  cut  in  below  the  sur- 
face. The  printing  is  done  as  follows :  The  plate  is  inked 
over  its  whole  surface  with  a  thick  printers'  ink.  The  ink 
is  then  wiped  off  the  surface,  but  remains  in  the  lines.  A 
sheet  of  paper  is  placed  upon  the  plate,  which  is  then  run 
under  a  roller.  The  action  of  the  roller  presses  the  paper 
into  the  lines  of  the  plate  and  the  ink  becomes  transferred 
to  the  paper.  The  paper  with  its  design  upon  it  is  known 
technically  as  a  print  or  an  impression  from  the  plate. 

Variations  may  be  made  in  the  printing  by  the  manner 
in  which  the  plate  is  inked  or  wiped.     The  most  impor- 

10 


tant  of  these  is  known  as  retroussage.  This  is  done  with 
a  fine  rag,  which  is  passed  lightly  over  the  plate  after 
it  has  been  inked  and  wiped.  The  action  of  the  rag 
draws  some  of  the  ink  out  of  the  lines,  leaving  it  upon 
their  edges,  which,  in  the  print,  gives  a  rich  effect  some- 
what akin  to  dry-pointl 

vm 

WOOD-ENGRAVING 

THIS  differs  entirely  in  principle  from  the  processes  pre- 
viously described.  In  those,  the  line  which  holds  the  ink 
for  the  printing  is  cut  into  the  plate,  and  it  is  therefore 
below  the  surface  of  the  copper.  In  wood-engraving  the 
engraver  cuts  away  the  part  of  the  block  that  is  not  to 
be  printed  from,  and  the  part  that  holds  the  ink  for 
the  printing  is  therefore  raised  above  the  surrounding 
surface.  The  wood-block  upon  which  the  engraving  is 
done  must  be  hard  and  close-grained.  Box-wood  is  com- 
monly used.  The  instruments  are  chisel-shaped,  or  are 
sharpened  to  a  fine  edge,  and  are  pushed  away  from  the 
engraver  in  cutting  into  the  block.  A  knife  may  also 
be  used,  and,  in  fact,  any  tool  that  will  cut  into  the  sur- 
face of  the  wood. 

The  nature  of  wood-engraving  gives  the  engraver  the 
choice  of  two  methods  of  procedure,  or  a  combination 
of  the  two.  He  may  cut  away  the  wood  so  as  to  leave 
narrow  lines  raised  above  the  surface,  resembling,  when 
printed,  the  lines  made  by  a  pen  on  the  paper.  He  may, 
on  the  other  hand,  cut  lines  in  the  wood-block  in  the  same 
way  that  he  would  cut  them  in  a  copperplate,  but  the 
lines  so  cut  will  not  show  black  in  the  subsequent  print- 
ing, because  they  are  below  the  surface  of  the  block  and 
cannot,  therefore,  hold  the  ink.  As  the  ink  is  held  by  the 
surface  on  each  side  of  the  line,  the  result  in  the  printing 
is  a  white  line  on  a  black  ground.  This  work  in  white  line 
is  the  true  method  for  the  wood-engraver,  as  it  is  more 

11 


in  the  spirit  of  his  process  than  the  black  line,  which 
requires  more  labour. 

The  inking  of  a  wood-block  for  printing  is  done  with  a 
roller,  as  in  ordinary  printing  from  type. 


IX 

LITHOGRAPHY 

A  LITHOGRAPH,  in  its  ordinary  form,  is  simply  a  crayon- 
drawing  on  stone  done  precisely  in  the  manner  of  a 
crayon-drawing  on  paper,  the  difference  being  that  the 
drawing  on  stone  may  be  multiplied,  as  in  etching  or  en- 
graving. 

The  crayon  used  in  lithography  is  composed  partly  of  a 
greasy  substance  which  sinks  into  the  stone  wherever  it 
is  touched  by  the  crayon.    When  the  drawing  is  finished 
the  surface  of  the  stone  is  covered  with  acid,  in  order  to 
fix  the  drawing,  so  that  it  will  resist  well  in  the  printing; 
but  the  acid  does  not  remain  long  enough  upon  the  stone 
to  eat  into  its  surface.     In  lithography  there  is  neither 
a  raised  nor  an  incised  line.    The  printing  is  done  from  a 
perfectly  flat  stone,  and  the  process  differs,  therefore,  en- 
tirely from  all  the  engraving  or  etching  processes.     In 
order  to  print  impressions,  the  stone  is  moistened  with 
water,  and  as  water  and  grease  do  not  combine,  the  parts 
drawn  upon  with  the  greasy  crayon  repel  the  water,  while 
the  parts  not  drawn  upon  absorb  it.     A  roller  charged 
with  greasy  ink  is  now  passed  over  the  surface,  and  for  the 
same  reason  as  before  the  ink  is  repelled  by  the  wet  parts 
and  adheres  to  every  part  drawn  upon.    A  sheet  of  paper 
is  placed  on  the  stone,  which  is  then  passed  through  the 
press.     The   ink  becomes   transferred  to   the  paper   and 
produces  an  exact  facsimile  of  the  drawing  on  the  stone. 
The  lithographer  may  work  on  the  stone  with  a  scraper, 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  out  parts  of  his  drawing,  and 
he  may  even  do  his  entire  drawing  by  this  method.    In 

12 


this  case,  he  blackens  the  surface  of  the  stone  with  a 
crayon  and  works  backward  from  dark  to  light,  as  in 
ordinary  mezzotint. 

He  may  also  work  on  the  stone  with  a  brush  and  a 
greasy  ink.  This  process  gives  in  the  printing  the  effect 
of  a  wash-drawing.  It  is  sometimes  called  lithotint. 


GENERAL  EEMARKS  ON  PRINTING 

IN  all  the  processes  described  above,  the  number  of  im- 
pressions that  can  be  printed  is  limited.  The  lines  of  the 
copperplates  and  wood-blocks  begin  to  wear  away  by  the 
action  of  printing,  and  the  impressions  on  the  paper  show 
the  effect  of  this  wearing  away  of  the  plate  or  block.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  print-collectors  seek  early  impres- 
sions. These  alone  give  the  artist's  work  as  he  intended 
it  to  be.  As  the  early  impressions  are  the  ones  sought  for, 
these  may  bring  big  prices  when  late  impressions  from 
the  same  plate  are  worth  almost  nothing. 

In  lithography  the  wearing  is  different  from  the  wear- 
ing in  the  other  processes.  The  stone  itself  does  not  wear, 
but  the  drawing  upon  it  becomes  used  up,  the  grease  which 
has  penetrated  the  surface  becoming  gradually  exhausted. 


XI 

COLOUR-PRINTING 

WOOD-ENGRAVING  and  lithography  are  the  processes  that 
have  been  used  most  generally  for  printing  in  colours. 
The  printing  in  this  case  is  done  from  a  number  of  stones 
or  blocks.  Each  stone  or  block  has  on  it  that  part  of  the 
drawing  which  is  to  be  printed  in  a  particular  colour,  and 
it  is  inked  with  the  colour  desired.  The  sheet  of  paper  is 
run  through  the  press  for  each  print  as  many  times  as 

13 


there  are  colours,  the  stone  or  hlock  being  changed  each 
time. 

Colour-printing  from  copperplates  may  also  be  done  in 
the  same  way.  Printing  in  a  number  of  colours  may  be 
done  from  a  single  plate,  but,  in  this  case,  the  different 
parts  of  the  plate  must  be  coloured  separately,  and  the 
printer  becomes  himself  an  artist  painting  upon  tne  plate. 


xn 

ORIGINAL  AND  INTERPRETATIVE  PRINTS 

IRRESPECTIVE  of  the  process  by  which  they  are  made,  prints 
may  be  divided  into  two  broad  classes — interpretative  and 
original.  An  interpretative  print  is  a  copy  done  by  its  au- 
thor from  the  painting  or  other  work  of  art  of  some  one 
else,  and  holds,  therefore,  the  place  of  a  translation  in 
literature.  Such  prints  were  of  great  value  before  the  in- 
vention of  photography,  but  their  purpose  is  now  made 
useless,  because  of  the  superiority  of  modern  mechanical 
processes  over  the  unreliable  human  hand.  Interpretative 
prints  may  show  great  technical  ability  on  the  part  of 
their  author,  and  may  therefore  be  interesting  studies, 
but  they  cannot  be  considered  works  of  art  in  any  true 
sense  of  the  words. 

Original  prints  are  those  that  are  done  by  the  artist 
himself,  and  they  are  as  much  original  works  of  art  as 
is  a  painting  or  a  drawing.  The  difference  between  the 
print  and  the  painting  lies  in  the  fact  that  while  only 
one  exists  of  the  latter,  a  number  may  exist  of  the  former, 
thus  giving  the  artist  the  power  to  multiply  his  creation 
so  that  its  possession  may  not  be  confined  to  one  person. 
The  artist  may,  of  course,  work  from  one  of  his  own  paint- 
ings or  drawings,  but  this  does  not  take  away  from  the 
originality  of  the  work,  because  the  painting  or  drawing 
is  his  own,  and  he  merely  exercises  his  right  to  put  his 
conception  in  another  form,  as  he  would  do  if  he  made 

14 


a  water-colour  after  one  of  his  paintings,  or  a  painting 
after  one  of  his  drawings. 

It  is  important  that  the  relationship  of  the  artist  to 
the  print,  in  the  case  of  original  work,  be  made  clear,  be- 
cause even  among  artists  themselves  this  relationship 
is  often  not  understood.  When  a  print  by  Diirer  or  Kem- 
brandt  is  shown,  the  question  is  often  asked  by  people  who 
should  know  better :  "Where  is  the  original  of  that  ?"  The 
answer  is,  of  course,  that  the  person  is  looking  at  the 
original.  The  explanation  of  this  may  be  better  under- 
stood by  taking  a  particular  case.  Let  us  suppose  that  the 
artist  is  about  to  do  an  original  etching.  After  preparing 
his  plate  he  draws  upon  it  with  his  needle,  and  then  cuts 
the  lines  into  the  plate  by  means  of  the  acid.  The  plate 
is  then  inked,  the  sheet  of  paper  is  placed  upon  it  and  it 
is  run  through  the  press.  The  result  is  an  impression 
of  the  artist's  work  on  the  paper,  the  ink  from  the  plate 
having  come  off  upon  the  paper,  and  this  is  called  a  print, 
as  we  have  already  seen.  The  artist  may  re-ink  the  plate 
a  number  of  times,  and  each  time  he  will  get  an  impres- 
sion of  his  work  similar  to  the  first  impression.  Now  each 
of  these  prints  is  an  original  work  by  the  artist,  because 
the  prints  are  the  result  at  which  he  has  been  aiming. 
The  etched  plate  is  not  the  original  work,  because  it  is  in- 
complete. When  the  artist  is  making  the  etching  upon 
the  plate,  he  is  thinking  continually  of  the  prints  that 
are  to  be  made,  and  he  does  his  work  always  with  reference 
to  them.  The  plate  itself  is  only  part  of  the  process,  and 
the  result  aimed  at  is* obtained  only  when  the  prints  are 
made.  The  plate  may  be  destroyed  afterward,  and  still 
the  work  of  art  exists,  as  it  was  intended  to  exist,  in  the 
prints.  The  plate  was  merely  one  of  the  instruments 
used  in  their  production,  precisely  like  the  brushes  or  the 
palette  in  the  case  of  a  painting.  The  decision  as  to  the 
originality  of  a  print  lies,  therefore,  entirely  in  the  answer 
to  the  question  whether  the  artist  has  created  a  work  of 
his  own,  or  whether  he  has  copied  the  work  of  another. 

15 


The  question  as  to  whether  the  plate  or  the  print  is  the 
original  work  of  art  has  been  so  greatly  misunderstood 
that  a  few  more  words  of  explanation  may  not  be  out  of 
place,  in  order  to  make  the  subject  still  more  clear. 

Let  us  take  again  particular  cases,  and  this  time  of 
particular  artists.  Let  us  suppose  that  Edwin  A.  Abbey 
makes  a  pen-drawing  on  paper  for  the  purpose  of  having 
it  reproduced  as  an  illustration  in  a  book  or  a  magazine. 
In  this  case,  the  pen-drawing  is  the  original  work,  and 
the  reproduction  in  the  book  or  the  magazine  is  only  a 
more  or  less  accurate  copy  of  it.  True,  Abbey  has  in  mind 
this  reproduction  while  he  is  at  work,  because  he  knows 
that  all  the  reproductive  processes  have  their  limitations, 
and  he  must  not,  therefore,  do  things  that  cannot  be  re- 
produced. But  when  the  drawing  is  finished,  it  is  handed 
over  to  another  man,  who  makes  a  copy  of  it  by  a  more 
or  less  mechanical  photographic  process.  Now  the  best 
of  the  processes  gives  only  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  the 
artist's  work,  as  any  one  may  see  by  comparing  the  re- 
productions of  Abbey's  drawings  with  the  original  draw- 
ings themselves.  The  most  important  point,  however,  is 
this.  Abbey  himself  considers  the  pen-drawing  the 
original  work  of  art.  It  is  this  drawing  that  he  has  been 
aiming  at,  and  when  it  is  done  he  gives  the  publisher 
the  right  to  reproduce  it,  but  he  keeps  the  drawing  for 
himself.  He  knows  that  the  drawing  is  the  valuable  work 
of  art  which  contains  his  idea  as  he  wishes  to  have  it  ex- 
pressed, and  therefore  he  keeps  it,  not  only  in  order  that 
he  may  leave  his  work  to  posterity,  but  also  because  he 
knows  that  the  pen-drawing  has  pecuniary  value  as  being 
an  original  work  from  his  hand.  If  he  were  forced  to 
choose  between  the  preservation  of  the  drawing  and  the 
preservation  of  the  reproductions,  he  would  unquestion- 
ably choose  the  drawing,  and  certainly  all  lovers  of  art 
would  make  this  their  choice,  too. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  Seymour  Haden  as  an  example 
of  a  print-maker.  When  Haden  etches  a  plate  he  thinks 

16 


entirely  of  the  aspect  of  the  print  that  is  to  be  made  on 
the  paper,  and  not  at  all  of  the  aspect  of  the  work  that  he 
is  doing  on  the  copperplate.  So  true  is  this  that,  like 
every  etcher,  he  often  takes  an  impression  from  the  plate 
during  the  course  of  his  work,  in  order  to  see  what  the 
exact  result  is  when  printed.  When  his  work  on  the  plate 
is  entirely  finished,  he  has  a  number  of  prints  made,  and 
these  he  sells  as  the  works  of  art  by  which  he  wishes  to  be 
judged  by  his  contemporaries  and  by  posterity.  In  fact, 
not  wishing  to  be  judged  by  poor  impressions,  he  actually 
destroys  the  plate  as  soon  as  it  shows  signs  of  being  worn, 
and  then  nothing  remains  but  the  prints.  The  plate  has 
been  cast  aside  as  a  worn-out  tool  which  has  served  its 
purpose  in  the  production  of  the  work  of  art,  but  which 
has  now  become  valueless;  and  the  work  of  art,  accord- 
ing to  the  artist  himself,  is  owned  by  any  one  who  has  an 
impression  from  the  plate. 

There  is  a  class  of  prints  that  comes  between  the  inter- 
pretative and  the  wholly  original.  In  this  class  the  artist 
draws  upon  a  wood-block  with  a  pen  or  a  fine  brush,  and 
the  engraver  then  cuts  the  wood  away  from  between  the 
lines,  leaving  them  to  be  printed  from  so  as  to  give  the 
artist's  work  on  paper.  Now,  while  the  artist  may  make 
an  original  drawing  upon  the  wood-block,  it  is  evident 
that  the  engraver  adds  a  new  element,  coming,  as  he  does, 
between  the  artist  and  the  print.  And  yet,  the  artist  may 
so  dominate  the  whole  process,  as  did  Diirer  and  some  of 
the  Europeans,  and  as  did  Moronobu  and  all  his  suc- 
cessors among  the  Japanese,  that  it  is  difficult  to  refuse 
the  title  of  original  to  the  prints.  The  fact  is  that  the 
engraver  is  almost  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  a  man  like 
Diirer.  He  has  merely  to  cut  away  mechanically  the  wood 
that  is  not  wanted,  leaving  the  drawing  upon  the  block 
raised  above  the  surrounding  surface.  He  may  spoil  the 
artist's  work,  but  he  cannot  add  to  it. 

The  case  of  the  Japanese  is  different  from  that  of  the 
Europeans.  Among  the  Japanese  we  have  a  class  of  prints 

17 


that  stand  entirely  alone.  It  may  be  said  that  three 
artists  are  necessary  in  the  production  of  a  Japanese  print 
— the  man  who  makes  the  design,  the  engraver  who  cuts 
it,  and  the  printer.  The  engraver's  work  is  more  or  less 
mechanical,  but  it  is  not  wholly  mechanical,  as  in  the 
European  case.  The  man  who  makes  the  design  is,  of 
course,  the  dominating  personage  in  the  trio,  and  it  is  he 
who  signs  the  work,  and  who  deservedly  gets  the  credit 
of  it;  but  we  must  remember  that  he  has  had  his  assis- 
tants, whose  names  we  ought  to  know,  but  which  have 
been  lost  to  us  in  most  cases.  The  prints  which  result 
from  this  combination  may  be  properly  described  as  origi- 
nal, because  they  are  the  result  aimed  at  by  the  artist 
and  his  assistants.  The  drawing  made  by  the  artist  in 
the  first  place  is  pasted  upon  the  wood-block,  and  is 
consequently  destroyed  in  the  subsequent  processes.  No- 
thing remains  but  the  prints  to  show  the  artist's  idea. 

YTTT 

TECHNICAL  TERMS 

A  state  is  a  change  made  by  the  artist  in  his  work  after 
one  or  more  prints  have  been  taken,  and  prints  taken  after 
the  change  consequently  differ  from  the  first  ones.  A 
trial-proof  is  an  impression  taken  during  the  course  of 
the  work,  in  order  that  the  artist  may  form  a  better  idea 
of  what  he  has  done  up  to  that  point. 

The  word  after  signifies  that  the  print  is  not  an  original 
work.  If  we  say  that  Marcantonio  made  an  engraving 
after  Raphael,  we  mean  that  he  made  an  engraved  copy  of 
one  of  Raphael's  paintings  or  drawings. 

On  old  prints,  and  sometimes  on  modern  ones,  we  find 
the  following  inscriptions: 

Fecit,  or  abbreviated  to  ft.,  fee.,  fe.,  f.,  meaning  made. 
Thus,  Claudius  fecit  means  Claude  made  it.  This  inscrip- 
tion is  by  no  means  a  guaranty  that  the  print  is  an  origi- 
nal work,  though  in  general  we  find  it  on  such. 

18 


We  find  also  the  imperfect  faciebat  of  the  same  verb, 
having  the  same  meaning. 

Some  etchers  have  signed  fecit  aqua  forti,  meaning  made 
it  in  etching,  which  may  be  taken  as  proof  that  the  work 
is  original  unless  accompanied  by  other  inscriptions  show- 
ing the  contrary. 

Invenii,  inve.,  inv.,  or  in.  mean  invented. 

Delineavit,  delin.,  deli.,  or  del.  mean  drew. 

Sculpsit,  sculps.,  sculp.,  sc.,  and  also  sculpelat  mean  en- 


Pinxit,  pinx.,  pin.,  p.,  and  pingebat  mean  painted. 

Excudit,  exc.,  or  ex.  mean  published. 

As  illustrations  of  the  above,  if  we  find  Rigaud  pinx. 
Drevet  sc.  on  a  print,  meaning  Rigaud  painted  it,  Drevet 
engraved  it,  we  know  that  the  print  is  not  an  original; 
while  C.  Visscher  del.  et  sc.,  meaning,  C.  Visscher  drew 
and  engraved  it,  would  show  us  at  once  that  the  work  was 
entirely  Yisscher's  own,  and  consequently  original.  So, 
too,  if  we  find  Nanteuil  pin.  et  sculp.,  or  Nanteuil  del.  et 
sculp.,  we  know  that  Nanteuil  made  the  engraving  after 
one  of  his  own  paintings  or  drawings,  and  that  it  is,  there- 
fore, original  work.  We  also  find  on  portraits  such  in- 
scriptions as  Nanteuil  ad  vivum  sculpebat  or  ad  vivum 
del.  et  sculp.,  the  ad  vivum  meaning  from  life.  In  these 
cases  the  work  is,  of  course,  original. 

We  find  also  the  words  cum  privilegio,  meaning  with 
permission.  This  signifies  that  the  owner  of  the  picture 
has  given  permission  to  have  it  engraved.  The  inscription 
is  generally  found  on  interpretative  work,  but  may  be 
found  on  original  work  also,  since,  of  course,  an  artist 
might  ask  permission  to  make  an  engraving  of  one  of  his 
own  paintings. 

We  come  also  upon  the  abbreviation  imp.,  meaning 
printed,  which  is  found  frequently  on  modern  prints,  and 
which  may  stand  for  the  Latin  form  of  the  verb,  but 
which  is  more  often  an  abbreviation  of  the  French  form. 

Modern  etchers  and  engravers  have  generally  signed 
19 


their  works  without  adding  any  inscriptions,  though 
among  some  of  them  we  find  the  old  inscriptions  in  use. 
On  lithographs  we  find  the  abbreviations  lithog.,  lUJio., 
and  litli.,  which  are  used  on  French  lithographs  in  two 
different  senses,  somewhat  perplexing  to  the  uninitiated. 
If  the  abbreviation  is  found  after  an  artist's  name,  it 
means  that  the  lithograph  is  done  by  him,  as  Eugene 
Isabey  liiJi.,  and  also  we  find  LitJi.  par  Eugene  Isdbey, 
with  the  same  signification;  but  when  we  find  the  word 
liiJi.  followed  by  the  word  de  and  a  name,  this  means  that 
the  name  is  that  of  the  printer,  as  Liili.  de  Lemercier. 
Thus,  if  we  find  the  inscriptions  Eug.  Isabey  del.  Lith. 
de  C.  Motte,  we  are  not  to  infer  that  the  print  is  not  an 
original  by  Isabey.  The  real  meaning  is  that  the  work 
was  drawn  on  stone  by  Isabey  and  printed  at  the  printing 
establishment  of  C.  Motte. 

XIV 

REMARQUE  AND  SIGNED  PROOFS 

A  few  words  must  be  said  before  closing  on  the  popular 
superstition  concerning  remarque  and  signed  proofs,  both 
of  which  were  invented  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  public 
into  thinking  they  were  getting  a  valuable  thing,  when, 
in  fact,  they  were  getting  something  of  no  value  whatever. 

A  remarque  is  a  small  sketch  drawn  on  the  margin  of 
the  plate  outside  the  principal  work.  Such  sketches  are 
sometimes  found  on  trial-proofs,  the  artist  having  amused 
himself  by  making  them  during  the  course  of  his  work, 
but  they  are  always  removed,  or  ought  to  be,  before  the 
regular  edition  is  printed.  Theoretically,  when  such  re- 
marques  are  found  upon  prints,  they  are  signs  of  early 
impressions,  and  therefore  bring  higher  prices  than  the 
later  impressions  without  the  remarques.  Practically, 
however,  a  low  class  of  dealers  have  sold  prints  from 
plates  upon  which  the  remarques  were  made  after  the 

20 


regular  editions  had  been  printed,  the  adding  of  the 
remarque  later  being  easier  than  the  placing  of  it  on  the 
plate  in  the  first  place,  which  necessitates  its  removal, 
subsequently,  by  the  process  of  planing.  The  demand  for 
remarque-proof s  grew  greater  and  greater,  and  the  dealers 
did  not  fail  to  supply  the  demand,  until  the  market  was 
flooded  with  them.  Now,  the  great  masters  have  never 
made  a  practice  of  making  remarque-proof  s,  and  no  repu- 
table etcher  would  make  them  to-day,  if  he  were  doing 
original  work,  though  the  case  is  sometimes  different  with 
interpretative  work.  There  are  very  few  cases  in  the  whole 
history  of  prints  in  which  remarques  are  found  upon 
prints  by  the  really  good  etchers,  engravers,  and  lithog- 
raphers. It  may  be  put  down  as  an  almost  invariable 
rule  that  an  original  print  with  a  remarque  in  the  mar- 
gin is  absolute  trash. 

A  signed  proof  is  one  upon  which  the  artist  has  signed 
his  name,  generally  with  a  pencil  in  the  margin.  This 
practice  was  unknown  before  the  latter  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  when  a  signed  impression  of  an  earlier 
work  is  found,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  signature  was 
added  because  the  artist  had  given  the  impression  to  some 
one,  and  had  wished  to  make  it  more  personal  by  his 
signature. 

The  whole  practice  of  signed  proofs  is  greatly  to  be  con- 
demned, not  only  because  of  the  false  impression  it  has 
given  to  the  public,  but  also  because  of  the  degrading 
effect  it  has  had  and  is  having  upon  art  and  artists. 
The  modern  practice  is  supposed  to  be  as  follows:  The 
etcher  prints  off  a  few  fine  impressions  from  a  plate  and 
signs  them  as  being  of  particularly  good  quality.  These 
he  sells  at  a  high  price.  He  then  issues  a  number  of 
inferior  impressions  which  he  leaves  unsigned,  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  the  first  ones,  and  these  he  sells  at 
a  lower  price.  Now,  why  should  a  man  with  any  re- 
spect for  his  art  issue  inferior  impressions  at  all?  Why 
should  he  wish  to  be  judged  by  any  but  the  best?  The 

21 


answer  is,  that  for  the  sake  of  pecuniary  gain  he  is  will- 
ing to  degrade  his  art.  If  he  wishes  to  sign  impressions 
for  the  sake  of  giving  them  the  stamp  of  nis  approval,  he 
should  sign  the  whole  edition;  if  he  does  not  care  to  sign 
the  whole  edition,  he  should  sign  none;  but  in  either  case 
he  should  issue  impressions  of  the  first  quality  only.  This 
practice  of  signing  the  whole  edition,  or  of  leaving  it  en- 
tirely unsigned,  has  been  the  general  usage  among  the  best 
etchers,  but,  unfortunately,  there  have  been  men  even 
among  the  greatest  who  have  not  been  above  taking  part 
in  the  shameful  debasing  of  their  art  for  the  sake  of  larger 
monetary  returns  from  an  unsuspecting  public. 


22 


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